**the other half of the relationship has already approved this blog**
As of Saturday, October 1st at sometime after 5pm, I
became an engaged woman. So many have asked me for the engagement story.
It is truly one to blog about because I think it is the best engagement
story ever, but I'm not biased - just stating opinion. However, with
all good stories, you never start at the middle or the end.
For
the past year and a few months, I feel like I have been living in
someone else's story. Yet, when I think about Who writes and fashions
the story for each of our lives, I should not be surprised that my loving
Heavenly Father would bless me with more than I could have ever
expected or dreamed.
Adam and I have known each other for
8+ years. He was probably 16 or 17 when we met, which would have made
me 20 or 21. (Que the old woman jokes.) We were not really friends, but I
did talk to him and things like that. We just ran in different social
circles. He was totally into music from the time I met him to this day
actually. My musical talent and ability can probably fit into my
thumbnail, maybe... I'm incapable of keeping rhythm. Yep, we are a good
match. When people at our church found out of Adam's music talent he
began playing for everything Youth Ministry related. This in turn caused
girls to swoon over him. If I had nickel for every time a girl said to
me, "I want a guy who plays guitar and sings..." I would have a lot of
nickels. For years, I gave Adam a hard time about this. Now, I like to
say to him, "I like you cause you play the guitar and sing..." He
loathes that.
Anyway, that's not the story. We were friends and co-workers and that was about it, until June of last year.
I'm not exactly sure when it all started. We would hang out with groups
of people and at the end of the time, we would be the last ones left.
This would lead to some good conversations and then we would leave. The
conversations continued over text messaging late into the night. (Yes,
sometimes dating even as adults is kinda like high school.) I lost a lot
of sleep in the first few weeks of his pursuing. Adam asked a lot of
good questions and I guess I answered a few them correctly. We were in a
long, boring meeting one Tuesday night and he sent me a text, "Want to
get some food?" Most guys would say something sweet like, "You look nice
or... something." He got right to the heart of the matter by appealing
to me with food. My text back was "Sure." We went a bit away from our
area of town to get food at a Wendy's. Super duper romantic, right? It
was a bit awkward and fun all at the same time. I remember him opening
my door for me and I was thinking, "This is strange, but I like it!"
There were quite a few more awkward moments, but that's part of the fun,
I think. Little did I know that a sovereign God was orchestrating in my
life what I had resisted for so long.
For the first few months of our relationship, we kept it on the
downlow (DL). Our families knew and my roomies were aware, but we had
decided that we didn't want to make a big deal about it. After a couple of weeks, it seemed like this
was going to be the real deal. I'm sure I was the one who became
attached quite quickly (Adam prefers to use the term smitten when
referring to my feelings.) Normally, relationships involve some type of
risk. Adam was definitely worth the risk. From the very beginning, God
has given peace in my heart about him. One of my constant desires for
the man I would marry is that there would be time to see his character
and those around me would confirm that he was a Godly man with
integrity. Despite his flaws/sin (which we all have), Adam has proven
himself to be faithful in his walk with Christ. I did not need friends
to affirm his character, I had seen it for many years. However, I was
thankful for the encouragement from so many family and friends that our
relationship seemed to be something the Lord had done and not anything
we tried to manipulate.
Without a doubt, this past year + has been the best of my life.
We have learned a lot about each other and have hopefully grown closer
to the Lord in the process. The story is not over Part 2 has just begun.
Stay tuned.
